Rearfacing to be mandatory til 15mths from next year *important*

[lagoonhaze]

Ive posted before about rearfacing car seats and will try and bump the post. This info is likely to affect those who are pregnant and making car seat choices.Rearfacing infants in cars to be mandatory til 15mths from next year regardless of the weight of the child. This is because it is proven to be safer.

I recommend you do your research into car seats choices more than any baby product you buy and look extended rear facing. I wasnt aware of it until my first child was outgrowing his britax stage 1 seat at age 2.5 and was looking into options. I felt sickened that I had put him forward facing at 10mths and disgusted that the government werent doing more to highlight this basic thing we could do to protect our children.

Mothercare are slowly catching on (besafe seats becoming available) but halfords appear not to care (yet). I recommend the following for advice on ERF.

www.securatot.co.uk
www.mamachic.co.uk
www.incarsafetycentre.co.uk

It is not known when it become mandatory but I have heard mid 2013. The car seat manufacteurs are already bringing out new seats that could accomadate this but most are stop gap type seats instead of decent extended rear facing. See carseat.se for the latest news from a baby show

Here are some bulletins and press releases on it

www.anec.eu/attachments/ANEC-PR-2012-PRL-017final.pdf

www.anec.eu/anec.asp?p=newsletter&ref=02-01

And here are some good resources for info on extended rearfacing (as well as carseat.se)

www.rearfacing.co.uk

www.facebook.com/#!/RearFacingTheWayForward?fref=ts

(please like the facebook page to get updates)

well, they're going to have to make bigger rf seats more widely available then!

Shame it's not 2, but a step in the right direction I suppose.

Agree. It should be longer that 15 months.

Oh crikey...we already have our seat What are we meant to do? The extended RF ones I've seen on here all seem to cost several hundred quid!

I'm wondering how long I can keep our Concord Ultimax RF. I can't remember, we had one for ds2 as well. Anyone know?

I would prefer it to be alot longer but at least its a start. I also hope that it is actually enforced too. Time will tell but hopefully it will ensure that more children are safer in cars

I think that seat goes up to 13kg sleds and a friend had her child RF in it til 2.5yrs. Check your red book for predicted weight.

Thankyou, that's a start anyway - baby isn't born yet.

We have the Kiddy Comfort for the next stage - with the padded cushiony thing. I hope that is kind of second best to RF.

We've already got our quinny buggy and the maxi-cosi car seat that fits onto it (it's the only buggy that will fit in our boot!), but just checked and it lasts up to 15 months. Phew.

Thanks for this lagoonhaze - much appreciated

Apart from the ERF seats, are there any available on the market at the moment that will do RF to this sort of weight?

We do RF, and have the besafe but I wonder if there will be a grace period?

It will be difficult for people who have just moved to forward facing, especially financially.

I baulked at the cost of the besafe, but there's no way I'd forward face my child after researching.

catching the maxi-cosi max weight is very optimistic, unfortunately!

Our baby seat did dd3 until at least 15 months. She was a small one but not tiny. Some group one seats will rear face further anyway.
It's going to have a bigger impact on those who move their children ASAP rather than those who grow out of seats.

all my baby's have been big born and quite long . none of them were in the rf car seat above 10 mths . I can't imagine keeping my next 1in it longer unless there made bigger I guess so I don't what I would do . I haven't even herd anything bout the law changing from weight to age...

We had rear facing, just because I didn't like the thought of forward facing for such a young baby.

Thanks for letting us know about this, have just let my cousin know, she's due next year.

our 12mo still fits in the carrier seat.

we did get one for bigger children that was a backwards until suchandsuch and forwards after, but we've not used it much (we will use it backwards when it's time to move out of the carrier)

DH chose it in a rush because he didn't know what he was doing

peazly our last 2 dc have been very small babies so there is a good chance this one will still fit in it. If not then I'll have to get on the hunt for a new one - any suggestions?

To be honest I hope there isnt a grace period. The government and retailers have had long enough to promote this change. Im just an interested mum and knew of it last June that it would be 2013- then it was Jan 2013 but it was ratified in brussels in time to make that deadline.

There are bigger seats available such as the britax first class, concord ultimax and graco junior mini which are combination seats. However we are a nation that favours infant carriers which we can pop in and out.

The britax hiway (exported by britax here and imported back by incarsafetycentre as britax dont think the market want it) is a good seat from birth I believe. As is the Klippan kiss - this one can actually be taken out like an infant carrier.

The choice over the last 2.5years has grown - previously I would have had to travel 4 hours to nearest stockits. Now I have 4 or 5 within a hours journey. This new law can only mean that manufacteurs and retailers will have to make provision.

Please do like that facebook page and share the news release further than its page about this change so that your friends and family are aware. It would seem the government arent going to inform parents til they absolutely have to and many will have already wasted money by then.

If no grace period, it needs to start being publicised. I've only heard of this change on mumsnet.

catching I'm just bitter that DS outgrew the the Cabriofix at 7mo. he's a chunky monkey and we couldn't get the straps to close, even when he was in the thinnest sleepsuit.

sleds my DD was rearfacing in a Concord Ultimax until last month, she's 19 mo now and has always hovered around top centiles for weight and height so 15 months shouldn't be an issue. HTH

Maybe we could all pop a email to ask our MP why not being publicised? Its shocking really.

Those of you who have seats that rear then forward face - most only go up to 13kg so check your red books if baby already here.

A britax hiway covers 0-25kgs rearfacing

The britax first class is a bitch to fit RF in most class due to length of belt needed. I have an older model and seat belt was exposed and could slip- i believe the new version has a belt guard on back of seat now- i could never get it tight enough in opinion but it was still correctly fittted. It was also a pain as the belt can across entry point.

Its a budget option but not the best option. I have also heard that as the child gets nearer the weight limit it can become a bit tippy around corners as no tethers like proper ERF.

Personally I would explore other options.

Milky, thanks ever so much - that's great to know.

Thanks milky.